SoylentNews

[Rescheduled to keep it visible--JR]

Introduction

For most people the holiday season is over. There are a few who have their winter holidays booked as we still have a few months of the skiing season to go yet, but I don't think that this affects any of our staff! So I offer a belated 'Happy New Year' and wish you all the very best for 2025.

Volunteers for the Board

Slightly less than 12 months ago I asked for volunteers to serve on the Board of SoylentNews and fortunately some people stepped forward and took on the 3 key roles (Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary). They have each contributed to the setting up of the site and getting us where we are today. However, they will soon be wanting to stand down from their current posts. The concept of the site is that the governance is provided by the community and that posts should be rotated occasionally. We are again seeking volunteers to assume one of the current positions. The roles are important, they are the most important posts on the site because without them there can be no site, but I don't think that they are particularly arduous. They are not roles that require a daily or even a weekly input. They maintain an overview of the site and they have an independent decision-making role in future site operations.

Volunteers for the posts should remember that they must be prepared to sign site legal business documents and therefore cannot maintain perfect anonymity. On the site we have not given any additional information other than their nicknames and user ids. Nevertheless, somewhere in the masses of paperwork and records that the US demands and maintains their names and contact details are recorded.

If you wish to volunteer for a post then you should have an account in good standing i.e. not banned or created within the last few months, and with a reasonable level of karma. Please volunteer either here in the comments or directly via email to admin@soylentnews.org. If you have volunteered for a post previously then it does not preclude you from volunteering again. If you have questions regarding a role then please raise them here. If appropriate, I will ask the person currently in that post to reply so that you get the information direct from 'the horses mouth'.

Once we have a volunteer or volunteers for a post we will hold an election for the community to approve and select a person for a post. This will be done openly and everyone with an active account created before the date and time that this Meta is published will have a single vote. The reason for this restriction is to prevent a mass of new accounts attempting to unfairly influence the outcome of the vote. The current Board will make the final decision on who is chosen.

As you will all be aware there has been much happening behind the scenes at SoylentNews. This is an update on activities which you possibly haven't noticed.

Administrative Documents

It has been necessary to redraft many of the documents for the original site which no longer refer to the correct business entity behind the new site. In most cases they are merely reprints of the original documents with typographical and grammatical corrections along with minor changes to reflect the company name. However, some are new documents (e.g. the new Bylaws, and how to successfully complete a bank transfer to our account if you wish to do so in preference to using either Stripe or Paypal etc). I would welcome any necessary corrections that you identify in them.

Bylaws

The Bylaws were written over many months with community contributions throughout. They affect how the business is managed from a legal aspect but not how the day-to-day activity is controlled. They were adopted by the Board and they were submitted to the relevant Federal and State organisations that control the creation and operation of such things when Soylent Phoenix was created. The Bylaws are significant to you in a couple of ways. Firstly, there are no shareholders/stakeholders on the Board - you own this site. Secondly, in the future any major changes to the operation of this site will require at a minimum a consultation with the community and possibly a formal vote to authorise the adoption of the proposed change. You now have a much louder voice in how this site will be run. Nevertheless, that does not mean that every minor change requires full community approval; the decision will ultimately rest with the Board.

If you wish to read the Bylaws they can be found at Soylent Phoenix - Bylaws (as submitted for Company Registration). Details of the current voluntary Board members can also be found there. The Board will require a confirmatory election by the community where other community members will also have an opportunity to be elected rather than the existing Board members. However, the voting software that was to be used to manage the vote became unavailable when audioguy left the site. I am still looking for replacement software that is reliable enough to ensure a free and fair vote. I would welcome any suggestions that you may have.

Tax Status

For those US members of our community who can benefit from it we are registered as an IRC Section 501(c)(3) company which means that subscriptions and donations are tax deductible for those lucky people. Subscriptions and donations can be made by Stripe or Paypal, but additionally now also by direct bank transfer either inside the USA or internationally.

Soylent Phoenix Policy

The Policy statement is for the most part a copy of the original statement but there are some differences. One is the inclusion of a policy statement regarding doxxing which I hope is self-explanatory. The second relates to the removal from view of persistent spamming. Removal of spam content has always been part of the site policy since its inception but it is both reaffirmed and clarified by the latest statement. Software is under development to assist with this function which will also give the community increased oversight of how such things are managed.

Definitions and Common Terms

To support the Soylent Phoenix Policy statement there is also a new document called Definitions and Common Terms. This is necessary because some community members seem to be confused over certain definitions as they apply to this (and the previous) site. I have searched through numerous Metas issued over the last decade and extracted the approved essential elements so that they can be viewed in one place. I will continue to update this document as needs dictate.

Transfer of Assets

In May of this year NCommander announced that the funds had run dry and he asked for community support while the change between companies was taking place. The community responded brilliantly and you donated enough to keep the site operational for around another 6 months. Those of you with a sharp brain will realise that the pot was empty again in late Oct . The 2 treasurers acting on behalf of their respective Boards ensured that money from the new company was used to pay the final bills as they came in. I am grateful to both of them for their work in doing this and to both Boards for working cooperatively. It was also to our benefit. NCommander agreed to gift all the assets from SoylentNews PBC to Soylent Phoenix in their totality. It was a generous gesture and much appreciated. The terms of this agreement are available for your perusal at the Transfer of Assets Agreement.

DRAFT - Discussion Policy

There is one document that is presented in Draft format and I would welcome your comments. Again it results from apparent 'confusion' over what is permitted in a journal and what is not. Essentially, journals have little to no staff control. They belong to the person who creates the journal. The Discussion Policy is an attempt to state the purpose and function of all discussions on this site as clearly as is possible. It is important to realise that this is a statement of what is already agreed and has been the policy since 2014. I would like your comments regarding its clarity and not whether you agree with what some people write in their journals. The latter would need a change of policy and would have to be addressed ultimately by the Board and the community.

Hardware

The move of all data from Akamai/Linode servers was completed several weeks ago. It was carried out in stages and Linode staff were very helpful. The account was closed when the work was finished. It removes a significant expenditure from our running costs.

Software

The site is now functional but if you experience anything unusual or unexpected please let us know so that it can be investigated to ensure it is nothing amiss in the software that we are using.

There is still software being developed by kolie, (with occasional help from NCommander), and a new member of the Dev/Sysadmin Team - that is Robc (Robc207 - 3408). Welcome!

Some of the software under development, in addition to the spam management software that I have already mentioned, includes improved security hardening of the site and additional administrative tools. You should remember that although quite a bit of work has been carried out on the community's UI, there has been very little work on the administrative software - which still looks and behaves as it did when it was first written almost 30 years ago.

We are also actively seeking a secure way to enable ACs to rejoin the community in main page discussions. This is a significant problem but there are several ideas that are being developed and tested to see if it is a practical proposition.

Joining a Team

If anyone wishes to assist in the running of this site then please do not hesitate to contact any of the staff. In particular, we are currently looking for someone (1 or 2 people) to manage the mediawiki. This is a very light task (a couple of hours per month at most) but at the moment almost every task is being shared among a very small group of people. Having someone to take responsibility for the mediawiki would free others up to enable them to do more of their primary role. I am not asking for someone to write the wiki contents (although if that is a job that you fancy then please step forward) but someone to control wiki access and do a little bit of wiki housekeeping.

Anonymous Coward Contributions to this Discussion

It is a fact that if this discussion were to be open to ACs on the front pages it would quickly become a focus for Spam from a very small group of people. Therefore, the contents of this Meta will be reproduced as a journal belonging to "AC Friendly" [https://soylentnews.org/~AC+Friendly/journal/] and ACs will be welcome to comment there. Valid points of discussion will be copied across to the front page story under the username of "AC Friendly". If an AC wishes to respond to a specific comment then please link to that comment in the first line of your own comment. Spam in that journal will be treated appropriately.

Finally...

It doesn't matter what religion you follow or what your beliefs are, the time is approaching when many people celebrate a notable festival of some kind and the end of the current year. The team at SoylentNews send their very best wishes to the community and to those close to them over the holiday period.

We've Done It

After almost 2 years and a lot of hard work by many people, we have finally achieved what we set out to do. On Wednesday, the Linode servers were decommissioned, and the site is now completely independent and running on its own hardware. All the site data and the domains belong to the community - yes, you own this site.

It could not have been possible without the dedication of quite a few people - some of whom have not made it to today. It wasn't pleasant and it wasn't easy. There were numerous meetings to create a new set of Bylaws. That in itself took many months of often acrimonious debate. Everyone wanted the same end, but they were not happy with how it was being achieved. In the end, as is always the case, it required a lot of compromise, and it meant we needed to say goodbye to the old way of doing things. So to all of those who participated in those meetings: mechanicjay, AudioGuy, Deucalion, Fnord666, MartyB, Separatrix, cmn32480, kolie, hubie, mrpg, requerdanos, fab23, chromas, fliptop, dx3bydt3, tedious, cosurgi, Runaway1956, and even aristarchus, and many that I have probably missed out, a huge thank you from me. And if I have missed you out then that is entirely my fault and I apologise!

The Bylaws dictate how the business will be managed. They do not contain any rules about how the site will be used, or what is permitted in submissions or discussions and what is not, or any of those things that tend to interest the community. But there are some unique differences in our Bylaws from those previously. The Board (which I will get to in a moment) manage this site on your behalf. While they handle routine matters as appropriate to their post, many actions require them to seek the agreement of the community. You will have a say in major decisions. After all, you own the site. The data cannot be used for any purpose other than maintaining this site without a majority decision of the community.

So having created the Bylaws, we could apply to create a company. This was necessary so that the new company (Soylent Phoenix) could receive whatever assets the original company (SoylentNews PBC) was prepared to transfer. For legal reasons, the Board members cannot be anonymous; they have to sign various pieces of legal documentation to create the company. So I asked for volunteers from the community. More than we needed stepped forward and so the business was created. The Chairman of the Board is OregonJohn (6105), the Treasurer is Dale (539) (and he is actually a qualified accountant!), and the Secretary is holeinone (17639). They have also been working hard on your behalf setting up the company, creating Stripe accounts, managing the current funds, and filling in the paperwork that is associated with a business. Technically the Board is a temporary one because they do not yet have the approval of the community. But that is built into the Bylaws, and it allows us to keep moving forward until their posts are confirmed by the community, or challenged by someone else who believes they should be allowed to do the job.

Next came the transfer of assets. Like all things this did not go as smoothly as everyone had hoped it would. Quite understandably, it was necessary for everything to be accountable and legal, and to look after everyone's interests. Again, it was only by having some tough discussions and making compromises on both sides that anything has actually been achieved. So another thank-you to NCommander and Matt Angel. I think we have a solution which, while not meeting all of our initial dreams, is one that we can live with for the future. The site never squandered money and there is nothing to suggest that your donations have been misused.

You will probably now all be aware that two people have donated hardware and a data connection at no cost to the site. Those people are kolie and fliptop, and they have my sincere thanks. Kolie's server is the one that you are using at the moment to read this Meta. In fact, it is handling all of the site including email, IRC, DNS, Varnish, the database, etc. etc. Fliptop's server is currently an off-site backup for our data but will probably require a bit of expansion before it will cope with the full Docker installation. You will also be aware that, over the recent weeks and months, kolie has built the entire software infrastructure into Docker containers, moving each function one by one from the Linode servers and incrementally adding it to our own hardware. He has put many man hours into this task and I for one have enjoyed working with him - although my contribution has been considerably less than his! Again, I offer my grateful thanks.

Finally, none of this would have been possible without the community being tolerant and understanding as we have encountered each unexpected obstacle. The community has, in fact, grown slightly in the last 2 years, but it remains at roughly 10% of what it once was. I thank you all for making this possible. Welcome to your site.

And now for something completely different....

Community Representatives

To provide the community with more visibility regarding the actions of staff and the reason and justification for those actions, we have created 3 posts which will act as Community Representatives. Their prime role is to provide the community with the assurance that management is behaving responsibly and within the rules governing the site, and for the community to have a focus when they have concerns regarding what is going on behind the 'curtains'. They will act as your voice in discussions and decisions. They will have full access to staff discussions but will only have limited access, and then only when absolutely necessary, to the data stored in the database. We have had 3 volunteers for these posts for many months, but I will provide more details once I have confirmed that they are still volunteering for the role, and when we have hammered out the working procedures that must be adopted for this system to function correctly.

TOR

We now have TOR up and running again - we had it quite a few years ago and then it disappeared. Eventually, the link will be in the SoylentNews side panel on your screen, but for now it is cut and paste:

http://soylentqarvi3ikkzpp7fn4m5pxeeonbv6kr4akgkczqethjfhmalhid.onion

Elections

As I mentioned earlier, technically the current board is temporary. If you wish to stand for a post then you may do so. We will be asking for nominations in the near future. However, remember that you cannot remain anonymous as your name has to be recorded on the official business records.

We will provide you with a Meta page should you wish to explain to the community why you believe that they should vote for you. The method of voting will be 1 vote per active account, which must be in good standing (i.e. meet a minimum karma level and not be currently banned). The software that will be used is still under consideration as the original voting software was written and operated by audioguy who is not currently taking an active part in the site management.

You cannot nominate someone else for a post. They have to put themselves forward as a candidate. You can of course vote for them should they do so.

realDonaldTrump Account

Accounts that have been dormant for over 5 years quickly attract attention when they suddenly re-appear. In recent years we have seen attempts to resurrect old accounts, sometimes by people other than the original owner. There is an option built in to Rehash which is named "Force User to Verify Account" (FUVA) and it appears on the user's administration page. It simply resets the password and sends the new password to the email address that we hold for that account in the database. The account holder can then reset the password to something of their own choosing and everything works as it should. Currently, it is invoked automatically after the 5-year point if the account becomes active again. About a week ago the "realDonaldTrump" (rDT) account suddenly sprang back into life, having been dormant since 2019, and for the most part it was welcomed by the community. However, by making a comment the FUVA triggered.

I think that the account holder has either forgotten how to access his email or the email address has lapsed for some other reason. So the account is now stuck in limbo. Without a working email contact we cannot send the new password to the account holder. I do NOT want to know who the account owner is. However, they must provide a working email address, which can be a temporary or throw-away address, and they must provide sufficient detail about the account to prove that they are the true account owners. The site can be reactivated as a parody account which will have specific restrictions associated with it.

Community Involvement

Although the site is now independent and 'under new management' there is still much that remains to be done.

• For the present the rules that we have inherited will remain in force, but they will have to be rewritten and approved by the community to take us into the future.
• We will need people to assist with the sys-admin role - which is more Docker management than anything else. Interested people do not have to currently know or use Docker, I am sure that we can provide guidance on acquiring those skills and then explaining the current site structure. It is much simpler than it once was.
• We are investigating how to create a separate environment for both testing code before it is integrated into the main site and as a training facility.
• As ever, we need your support by providing submissions and by participating in the discussions. There are 23 submissions in the queue but 17 of them by one of our 2 submission bots which many people dislike.

Potential Return of Anonymous Cowards to the Full Site

Over the last week or two the level of spamming and abuse has significantly reduced. However, the reasons for this are unclear, and it might not indicate a permanent or even long-lasting change. If the low level continues for a significant period (certainly into the New Year) then it might be possible to re-admit ACs to the whole site again. This is something that is we all want to see, and it would be a welcome enhancement to the site. However, it depends entirely on those few individuals who account for the vast majority of the spam and abuse.

If ACs are allowed back onto the full site then any permanent return is entirely dependent on the spamming remaining at a very low level, and for personal attacks to be rare events.

Withdrawn - It didn't even last until we got this Meta out. JR